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Government's Manila decongestion drive encounters resistance

The Philippine government's move to decongest Manila Ninoy Aquino Int'l airport has encountered its first resistance after key voices in the country's regional tourism industry warned such a move would negatively impact their economies through added costs and inconveniences to tourists.

Earlier this quarter, government committed to transferring all General Aviation flights from Manila Ninoy Aquino to Manila Sangley Airport in Cavite while local carriers also pledged to transfer select domestic routes to Clark.

However, according to the Sun Star newspaper, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Eastern Visayas told a Filipino Senate hearing last week that plans for Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air, and AirAsia Philippines to switch their respective Manila-Tacloban routes to Clark in the coming weeks would result in higher airfares, increased land transportation and air freight costs, and longer travel times. In all, this would then lead to an overall decline in the number of tourists visiting the region thus impacting its long term growth potential.

The government had intended to use Tacloban, the Philippines' main gateway to the tourist hotspots of Leyte, Biliran, Southern Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar provinces, as a trial run before pushing ahead with the rest of its proposal.

“If the DOTr [Philippine Department of Transport] really wishes to make a significant immediate impact in minimizing the congestion at Manila International Airport, then it should consider other routes with really high flight volumes in the Visayas such as Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu with more than fifty plus flights per day combined,” the business chamber argued. “Another option is to study the moving of more international flights to Clark instead of domestic flights."

The PCCI regional chapter urged the DOTr to carry-out consultations with affected stakeholders in the region before pursuing the re-routing proposal any further.

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Philippine Airlines (PR, Manila Ninoy Aquino Int'l) has received a cash injection of at least PHP15.2 billion pesos (USD299 million) courtesy of billionaire Lucio Tan, its chairman and chief executive, whose holding company LT Group has a majority stake in the carrier's parent PAL Holdings.

PAL president Gilbert Santa Maria told ABS-CBN News on May 21 that a third of the capital infusion, about PHP5 billion (USD98.5 million), had already been deployed this year to keep the carrier afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic.

PAL is “not in immediate danger of bankruptcy” for now, but “without that liquidity, Philippine Airlines would probably not be here anymore,” Santa Maria said. “We are hanging on. We are waiting to fulfil our mission as the flag carrier.”

Expected to exit the country's strict lockdown at the end of this month having lost USD1 billion, the airline is not considering any further job cuts after dismissing 5% of its workforce - about 300 employees - in February, Santa Maria said.